


Comprehend

by AuroraNova



Series: The Vadari Chronicles [10]
Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Gen, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-28 18:10:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19399606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuroraNova/pseuds/AuroraNova
Summary: "Sometimes the only thing more dangerous than a question is an answer."Secrets, understanding, and Rules of Acquisition.





	Comprehend

Having limited entertainment options, Julian is devoting his evening to writing up research in the hopes that some journals will keep their doors open to him following his discharge from Starfleet. There’s the mitochondrial replication work he’s been doing lately, with its intriguing possibilities for future treatment of those suffering from Breen weapons radiation in the immediate post-exposure stage. His work is far from definitive, but he sees potential in it, and will keep at the project.

He’s also writing up his plan to help Jadzia conceive and successfully carry the galaxy’s first Trill-Klingon child. It’s not something he’ll publish without Worf’s express permission, for which he hasn’t yet asked. Jadzia was a scientist who thirsted for and loved to share knowledge. She, Julian believes, would’ve liked him to make the protocol he developed available for future couples to call upon, and appreciated this as his way of honoring her dream to have a baby. Worf is another story. Julian doesn’t even know how to get in touch with Worf now, and a doctor on a remote colony can’t simply call up the Federation Ambassador to the Klingon Empire. He’ll have to ask Ezri. She and Worf agreed not to stay in touch, but to be available should one of them ever need the other, so she’ll have his comm code.

So much has changed from seven months ago, when Julian could’ve gone to Worf’s quarters or asked after a senior staff briefing. Seven months ago, quite aside from trying to cure the morphogenic virus in between battle wounded, Julian wasn’t ready to write up his research for Jadzia’s baby. He still struggles with how he got the cure and what it says about him, and isn’t fully reconciled to his new post-Starfleet life, but some of his older hurts are healing.

The sting of having Garak be off on a third date is only getting stronger.

Julian needs to make up his mind and commit to whatever he decides, be that laying his cards on the table and asking if there’s a chance for him, or getting over his feelings. This shilly-shallying is not at all like him, and he hates it.

He hates the idea of ruining his friendship with Garak more, apparently.

One complete data chart late, Garak returns home wearing his patented neutral expression.

“How was your evening?” asks Julian.

“Since you’re bound to find out with the way people talk around here, there will be no further dates with Plestrendetrek.”

Julian tries his best not to look pleased. Instead, he lies through his teeth. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Would you believe he accused me of being secretive?” Garak gets himself a glass of water and sits in his chair, while Julian saves his work.

“Yes, actually.”

The more interesting part of this conversation is that Garak is being truthful. He doesn’t lie to Julian nearly as much as he used to, and Julian takes that as a sign of trust.

“I’m beginning to wonder if this was all a plot to pry into my personal history.”

“People frequently ask about their date’s life without having a sinister plan to feed the gossip mill.” At least, they do in the Federation. For all Julian knows, that’s not the case on Cardassia.

“It doesn’t exclude the possibility,” says Garak, whose little snit might be his attempt to cover up disappointment.

“I understand now, you know,” Julian says. “When we first met I thought you were secretive because you like being an enigma, and while I’m sure that’s true to an extent, that was never the real point, was it? So many of the answers I sought were classified, dangerous for me to know, or would’ve at the least upset me over something I couldn’t change.”

It all makes sense now, because Julian has to do the same thing, if not to the same extent. He has to let people think he was really discharged from Starfleet over his genes, hold the classified secrets of the war, and keep protecting people from Section 31 and not enrage them over something they can’t control but could very well lead to an ‘accidental’ death. This is probably the tip of the iceberg compared to Garak’s experience.

And yes, Garak might be able to explain the real reason he was exiled, but it doesn’t matter anymore. Whatever exactly happened with those Bajoran prisoners, it comes down to the same thing: he displeased Tain. Julian has his suspicions that on some level, Garak disagreed with his father’s operations for longer than he’d ever admit, maybe even to himself. After all, this is the man who let Natima Lang escape.

Garak gives his serious look, the one which means he’s not about to make a flippant remark. “It’s not an understanding I ever wished on you.”

Julian knows. Garak is capable of anything he deems good for Cardassia or, secondarily of course, himself, but he doesn’t delight in cruelty. (In that way, he is decidedly not his father’s son.)

“I fundamentally disagree with the Ferengi worldview,” says Garak. “However, amidst the many appallingly selfish Rules of Acquisition, there are a few with which I agree.”

“’Hear all, trust nothing?’” It seems like Garak’s kind of motto. Personally, Julian can only think of one Rule with merit: number two hundred and seventeen, ‘You can’t free a fish from water.’

“Good advice, but in this case I mean ‘Sometimes the only thing more dangerous than a question is an answer.’”

“I hadn’t heard that one. It’s a good point, though.” He wouldn’t have thought so when they first met. Now he knows the universe is full of perilous answers. “Do you ever look at people worrying over something insignificant and want to scream that there are larger problems in the universe?”

“I had customers debating which shade of cream they preferred when Dukat had just handed the entire Union over to the Dominion.”

“And you had to open your shop today when two former members of the Obsidian Order were executed.”

Garak looks at him with surprise. “Following the news out of Cardassia on your own now?”

It helps him anticipate Garak’s moods. “There’s no one who likes to debate with me in the hospital staff room, so I have time to read at lunch. It’s not the same, by the way.”

“I’m sure it isn’t. But you can rest assured they were not innocent men.”

“That doesn’t mean they deserved to be executed.” Not by the notoriously unconcerned with justice Cardassian legal system, which wouldn’t consider what they’d done, only how the show trial looked.

“Maybe not by your standards. But Cardassia’s current state is the Order’s fault.”

Julian doesn’t follow. “Because Tain attacked the Founders?”

“No. Because we stifled all criticism, however fair, so harshly that no one dared question Dukat joining the Dominion.”

He wonders exactly when Garak started being so honest with him. Perhaps Julian isn’t the only one who needs to discuss troubling subjects, though it’s not something he associates with Garak. (The incident with the wire doesn’t really count, as Garak’s brain chemistry was a mess.)

“Don’t take on punishment for Dukat’s crimes.”

“I’m not. You know what I was, Julian.”

“And I know who you are now.”

“Humans.” Garak shakes his head, but it’s with real fondness and perhaps even relief. “So forgiving.”

Many friendships, when both parties change as much as Julian and Garak have, end up fading away. Theirs has not. They understand each other, and although neither of them is the type to admit it, they need each other. Julian thinks they could be a happy, if unconventional, couple. He also thinks he’s terrified of hurting this precious friendship.

“I also think there’s something to be said for the Rule of Acquisition which states, ‘It never hurts to suck up to the boss.’ Fortunately, those of us who are self-employed need not worry about such things.”

In his best dry tone, Julian says, “I’ll keep that in mind next time I speak with Dr. Rabinowitz.”

“Try not to be too transparent in your efforts. Can I interest you in a game of kotra?” Garak asks.

“Sure.”

He has to make a decision, one way or the other. But not tonight.

Soon.

**Author's Note:**

> I know you could see Plestrendetrek not wanting to date Garak as a cop-out here, but I think it would be a real issue. At first Plestrendetrek thinks he's charming and good company, let's go on a date. Then two or three dates later Garak hasn't even shared his first name and Plestrendetrek decides this is never going to work. 
> 
> It also sets up a nice contrast for how Garak and Julian get each other. Anyway, that's my reasoning here.
> 
> I've written more about Garak in this piece as a [Tumblr post](https://aurora-nova-fic.tumblr.com/post/185919871950/new-fic-comprehend-and-editorial-thoughts).


End file.
